NESTING IN WESTERN INDIA. 19 



was visible, searching 1 for their eggs, but, when I had disappeared and 

 lay hid in the dense jungle, I saw them through my glasses going 

 through the same antics. As far as I could judge, it was done when 

 any other bird approached the nest or young, and was evidently a 

 sign of ansrcr. Two birds which I shot while thus extended were 

 both males. The ground-colour of the eggs is a light dirty green in 

 Bome, in others drab, covered all over with dark purple blotches, 

 denser in some than in others, and sometimes forming a zone at the 

 broader end ; some are in shape broad ovals, others nearly spherical ; 

 they vary in length from 1*1 to 1°35 and from 0*8 to l - 05 in width, 

 the average of 52 eggs being ]"2G in length and 0*95 in width." 



843.— THE LESSER SWALLOW PLOVER. 

 GJareola lactea, Few, 



The Lesser Swallow Plover occurs along most of the larger rivers 

 in Western India, 



Mr. Davidson found it to be not uncommon during the cold weather 

 along the river Bhima ; Mr. Littledale found it breeding near 

 Baroda, and I myself found it breeding in some numbers on the 

 sandy islands in the bed of the river Indus, near Kotri ; it had 

 not previously been recorded from Sind. I find from my note 

 book, that I shot my first specimens on the 20th February, 1881 ; 

 on dissecting them I found the testes very large and the ovaries 

 well developed, showing that they were about to breed. Early iu 

 March I sprained my knee, and was unable to go after them, but on 

 the 10th I managed to drive along the banks of the Indus, and about 

 a mile down stream I found a small island, literally swarming with 



birds, evidently breeding. They comprised the following kinds : 



Sterna seena, Sterna mekmogastra, Rhynekops albicollpi, Glareola lactea 

 and a pair of Esaeus remrvirostris. I made arrangements next day to 

 have the eggs taken. I could not go myself, as I could scarcely put 

 mj T foot to the ground, so I sent a Bhil shikaree, with my gun, (as I 

 wished him to shoot specimens, to prevent mistakes as much as pos- 

 sible), but he was arrested before he had gone half a mile for carryino- 

 arms, and the gun was taken from him, and it was only after a deal 

 of bother that I got it back. On the 15th I again drove down, but 

 found that during ths night the river had unexpectedly risen, and the 



